Human Rights Watch concerns for 17 Iranian Kurds on death row

Human Rights Watch condemned the execution of five political prisoners in Iran this week and warned that 17 other imprisoned Kurds are also in imminent danger of execution.

Human Rights Watch also reports that the remains of the four executed Kurds have not yet been handed over to their families for burial.

Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heydarian, Shirin Alam Holi and Farhad Vakili are the four Kurds that were hanged on Sunday along with Mehdi Eslamian in Tehran.

Joe Stork deputy Middle East director at Human Rights watch said: “These hangings of four Kurdish prisoners are the latest example of the government’s unfair use of the death penalty against ethnic minority dissidents. The judiciary routinely accuses Kurdish dissidents, including civil society activists, of belonging to armed separatist groups and sentences them to death in an effort to crush dissent.”

Joe Stork also calls for a “moratorium on all executions” to include the “17 Kurdish dissidents known to be on death row.”

Rostam Arkia, Hossein Khezri, Anvar Rostami, Mohammad Amin Abdolahi, Ghader Mohammadzadeh, Zeynab Jalalian, Habibollah Latifi, Sherko Moarefi, Mostafa Salimi, Hassan Tali, Iraj Mohammadi, Rashid Akhkandi, Mohammad Amin Agoushi, Ahmad Pouladkhani, Sayed Sami Hosseini, Sayed Jamal Mohammadi, and Aziz Mohammadzadeh are the names of the 17 Kurds faced with imminent execution.

Domestic and international human rights organizations have protested against the recent executions and condemned the Islamic Republic’s strategy to ensue fear within the public through these sudden executions.